The Editor, Sir:

Like most Jamaicans there is no love lost on the JPS and I look forward to the analysis of its charges that the PM has ordered the OUR to conduct.

But I have been puzzled by what looks to me like a strange tale of two companies being urged on in a public cass-cass by a minister common to both.

Petrojam the oil refinery is a wholly-owned state company under Mr Mullings' ministry. The government owns, I believe, 20 per cent of JPS and is a partner with the Japanese. Mr Mullings has several directors on the board of the utility. You would believe those directors would be informing the minister of the state of affairs of JPS.

Yet curiously, barely a day after the PM orders his probe, the minister is in Parliament making a grand announcement that JPS owes Petrojam his other company for which he is fully responsible, billions of dollars. You would think he's the one to broker a settlement between them. Instead on radio, he proceeds to advise that Petrojam should sue JPS for its money.

Laughable

Further, if my memory is correct, wasn't it minister Mullings who only a few months ago was heralding a historic partnership between the said JPS and Petrojam to build a petcoke power plant? That's laughable. If the two companies can't settle outstanding bills in private with a common minister between them, I can't imagine how they can collaborate on a multibillion-dollar project.

It seems to me JPS keeps harping on high fuel prices for out-of-whack bills and though I'm not inclined to listen to monopolies, the fact is, prices are hardly budging at the pumps too.

I am, etc.,

SEAN WALKER

loveJAbad@gmail.com

Kingston